Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Eve Expectations

Pin It Now! We let the kids open one designated present on Christmas eve. This year it was something crafty that they could do that night. I expected that they would love it!

You can tell from the look on Lydia's face that she was less than thrilled with her shrinky dinks. "I have already done these before and I didn't like it!" So much for gratefulness, huh? If you are one of our local friends, don't be surprised if this one is re-gifted to your child on their next birthday.

I guess I should have just gotten her another hand-me-down princess dress that is frayed, falling apart, stained, and held together by a safety pin.

I got Elijah a color by numbers. I expected him to love it because he is the artist in the family and just days before he freehanded this:

His reaction to the color by numbers? "This is way too hard. I don't want to do this.

Jordis got a coloring book for her dot to dot paints. In the weeks leading up to Christmas she had managed to ruin most of those paints so there were only 3 colors left by Christmas eve. I expected that she might not be excited for this book. I was wrong. She loved it. She got right to work on her book with her 3 colors.

One thing I did not expect was Elijah to give some of his silly bandz to Lydia. So sweet. He even drew a pink princess on a piece of paper to wrap them in. I wasn't really bothered by the fact that a few of the bandz were actually already Lydia's. Nor was I disturbed when he presented her with a "broken ghost" band. Sibling love at its finest.

One of the guys from our college small group joined us for our Persian dinner. After the kids went to bed we played Settlers of Catan. I expected to have at least one win. I did not.

Expectations schmectpectations.

Even though the 2 of the 3 kids did not like their presents, it was a good night.

This is what they kids came up with when I asked them to go put on their best Christmas outfits. Notice Lydia is carrying her beloved Cinderella dress so she could put it on when she got to class. And underneath she wore a jazzercize outfit which she unveiled right after she got out of class.



My parents came to church with us and we sang "Silent Night" (which is a song written by someone who did not have kids).

We dined on delicious Persian food.

We talked to the kids about prophecy and told them about a few of them that Jesus fulfilled.

We played Settlers of Catan.

I got some good laughs watching Shiloh and Robbie put together the Barbie doll house. Even better was watching them try to dress the barbies.

I just knew the girls would freak out when they saw that Barbie house . . . but they didn't. Stay tuned . . .


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6 comments:

mel @ the larson lingo said...

Can't wait to hear about the Barbie house. Did you expect to see me on your doorstep on Christmas Eve ? :)
Growing up, we opened up all our presents on Christmas Eve after church. Now we continue that with our girls at my parents house every year after church on Christmas Eve!

Annett/ Fit Moms Fit Kids Club said...

I LOVE that Elijah is BROWN in his picture! I think he thinks he is Michael Jordan reincarnated! Byron (my hubby) thinks he's latino (he's SO NOT!) But, if he were a kid he'd probably draw himself light brown! lol. I LOVE the Persian food idea, what a neat tradition so OUT of the BOX.

Me (aka Danielle) said...

I love this! Why is it, that kids never do as we expect them to?

I absolutely love Lydia's sense of style! Makes me smile!

TDM Wendy said...

Mel,
No you didn't let me down. You told me you were coming by on Christmas.
Annett,
Oh he so wishes he were brown like Michael Jordan.
Danielle,
Lydia and her style. You should see what she wore to the dentist today :)

Anonymous said...

Are you a board game nerd, too? Because that is so cool. It makes me love you even more!

TDM Wendy said...

Songskatesang,
Oh yea. We like board games.